Sone Bayen elected pioneer Executive Secretary of CAMASEJ Ethics Committee

By a Correspondent

The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee (EDC) of the Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) has chosen senior journalist Franklin Sone Bayen as its pioneer Executive Secretary, according to a press release jointly signed on 27 June by Jude Viban, National President of CAMASEJ and Leocadia Bongben, EDC Chair.

The other five members of the newly-created regulatory organ of the association chose Bayen during their maiden bi-annual session in Yaounde on 26 June 2025. Bayen was voted by acclamation during the session coordinated by EDC’s chair, Leocadia Bongben.

EDC was created on 17 October 2024 by a decision of the National President of CAMASEJ, Jude Viban, and its members appointed to uphold ethical practices and discipline among CAMASEJ members.

Ahead of the election, the job description and job profile of the Executive Secretary were read. It includes managing the day-to-day affairs of EDC, receiving complaints about claims of news media offences, investigating the claims to establish their validity, coordinating media monitoring and data collection with the help of two younger journalists as data collectors, compiling and analyzing the data for the attention and deliberation of fellow members during statutory bi-annual and other sessions, and drafting the bi-annual State of the Press Report.

When members were called upon to nominate candidates for the position, a member of the committee, senior journalist, Kini Nsom said there was not need to bother. “Listening to the job description and job profile, I am already seeing Bayen suited for it. The description marches Bayen.” The other members accepted Kini’s proposal and voted Bayen by acclamation.

Bayen is not new to media regulation. He has worked and researched on the subject since the year 2000 when as a young journalist, he was selected as a data collector for the Ethics Committee of the Cameroon Union of Journalists (CUJ) chaired by Antoine Marie Ngono of CRTV. He subsequently published in a special edition of his newspaper, MEDIA People, the different models of media regulation practiced in different countries. He furthered his research on media regulation during his postgraduate studies.

Bayen is a senior freelance investigative journalist, who contributes articles and shadow edits several newspapers. He has worked full-time for several local and international news outlets. He has been editor at The Herald, The Post, Weekly Post and MEDIA People (his own creation). His audiovisual experience includes his functions as Editor-in-Chief and manager at Radio Siantou, Radio Reine, New TV and Eternity Gospel Radio, and as correspondent for RFI, VOA, Radio Vatican and SABC. He worked in the newsroom of Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the United States as an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow and did a stint at the VOA headquarters in Washington DC. He contributes news, phone-ins occasionally to foreign news outlets.

Bayen studied Journalism and Mass Communication at the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) and the University of Buea where he completed coursework for his Master’s degree in record time and is expected to defend his thesis.

The CAMASEJ Ethics and Disciplinary Committee is chaired by Leocadia Bongben, a freelance journalist who is a former reporter of The Post newspaper and several international media outlets including the BBC. Other members of the committee are Norbert Wasso, Publisher of The Sun; Kini Nsom, Yaounde Bureau Chief of The Post; Clementine Njang Yong, Editor and Producer at CBC Radio in Bamenda)l; and Randy Joe Sa’ah a BBC correspondent.

Besides the election of its pioneer Executive Secretary, other key points deliberated upon during the maiden bi-annual session were included modalities of the functioning of the committee, its standing orders and how the committee will relate with journalists (members of CAMASEJ), news media organizations employing CAMASEJ members and CAMASEJ structures to maintain ethics in journalism practice and discipline among members.

The session marks the beginning of the work of EDC which shall, among other things, primarily monitor the content of the news media, receive complaints about claims of malpractices, deliberate on them and produce a bi-annual State of the Press Reports.